This Lent, return to God with your whole heart, remove prejudices

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Again, we keep this solemn fast / A gift of faith from ages past, / This Lent which bids us lovingly / To faith and hope and charity.

I always love praying on these wonderful words, said to come from Pope St. Gregory the Great, which remind us to give ourselves to this wonderful Lenten Season, which begins each year on Ash Wednesday. This is the opportunity the Church offers us each year to take up the directive of the prophet Joel that we hear every year on Ash Wednesday at Mass, “Yet even now, return to me with your whole heart” (2:12).

So how do we return to Him with our whole heart? The first step is simple: the acknowledgment of the presence of God in our life. God knows each of us and has known us for a very long time: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you” (Jer 1:5). Incredible to think about God’s individual love for each of us? No. So, give some time to prayer each day during Lent. Any time we do, our loving Father is there, waiting to listen to our prayers and petitions, waiting to convert our hearts to be more unto like His, beating in love for others.   

The next step is the wonderful gift of our Church’s Sacramental life, particularly the treasures of the Eucharist and Penance. Make the intention to attend Sunday Mass, especially in the season of Lent. Attend as a family if you are able. Or, if you are already doing so, try to attend a daily Mass or two some other days of the week.

In this time of Eucharistic Revival, consider going to Eucharistic Adoration where you can meet Jesus and receive his peace and love or spend a few minutes in a church simply sitting in the presence of our Lord in the tabernacle, either before or after Sunday Mass or stop in a church some other time during the week. Jesus is always there waiting for you.

The other profound way to return to our Lord with our whole heart is in the wonderful Sacrament of Penance, where we truly encounter God’s grace, forgiveness and mercy. Go to Confession during Lent! Thanks to a translation modification, you might even notice that the prayer of absolution has slightly changed.

This year, I also ask us to take up a particular Lenten “task” to consider. It is so disturbing that more and more in the news we hear of bias attacks against our brothers and sisters of other faiths and to their houses of worship (synagogues, Mosques, Islamic centers, Temples). Each of these acts of vandalism begin in the heart before they are acted upon with physical vandalism or destruction. Jesus warned us and all His followers that we would be judged by the evil intent in our heart as much as the physical offense that may result (Mt 5:21-24). So, this Lent I ask all of us, my brothers and sisters of the Church of Metuchen, to examine our heart, and ask God during this penitential season to remove any prejudices we may have. I have heard more than once from our priests and others in the diocese of the words of my late predecessor, Bishop Edward Hughes, prejudice and racism “…are wrong. They are terribly wrong.” He was certainly prophetic in striving to eradicate racism from our midst.   

We all have our own prayer lives and relationship with God, but our faith is lived communally, in imitation of the Communion of our Triune God. All of us enter Lent together and all of us finish at the same time. All of us begin on Ash Wednesday and finish at the Upper Room and Gethsemane and Calvary and the empty tomb. Recalling the words of St. Paul, I ask you to compete well and finish the race (2.Timothy 4:7).   

During this grace-filled time, know that you have a special place in my prayers. I also ask you to pray for our good priests, who so often in trying to make things special for our good parishioners Lenten observances use up valuable time they could use on their own personal Lenten journey. Our priests need your prayers, as do I, so please pray for me too. Know of my love and prayers for you and know how grateful I am that we are on this journey together! God bless you with a blessed Lent.

We pray, O blessed Three in One, / Our God while endless ages run, / That this, our Lent of forty days, / May bring us growth and give you praise.”-- Pope St. Gregory the Great

 

Most Reverend James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA
Bishop of Metuchen